Mentor of the Year
by hoarder
Summary: Post-Awarded. I just thought it was a waste for him to be so mad at her when she looked so pretty. JOllie. More friendship than anything else, but I always see the shippy implications.


**Author's Note**: if I didn't totally suck, this would've been posted a lot closer to Valentine's Day and not two weeks later. But I do so it's being posted now. I actually have a multi-chapter Jac/Oliver fic planned, but if you know anything about me you know I'm rubbish at multi-chap fics, so who knows. Whatever. Rambling. Reviews are always welcomed with open arms.

**Disclaimer**: I obviously do not own Holby or any of the characters or anything other than this rather pants idea.

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><p>It was less than an hour before she started to feel bad. And she wasn't used to feeling bad about such small, irrelevant things. She had to admit that she'd misled him. She'd hoped he'd get in that cab with her, be there on time and accompany her even if he walked out later. The room had been fall of sleazy surgeons, complimenting her with grins. Of course she looked amazing, but it wasn't for them. It was a reminder for Boy Valentine. She had no doubt that he vividly remembered that time together, she just thought it was time to do something about it. And now he'd stropped off, in a mood with her. Fabulous. She slammed down her champagne flute and headed to find Valentine. She'd sort this out once and for all.<p>

He was wondering if he'd been a bit harsh. She'd misled him, yes, but she'd never actually lied. At least, not about this. He contemplated going back, but wasn't sure he could handle the smug face. If he was honest, he mostly wanted another glimpse of her in that dress. He knew from experience just how gorgeous Jac was, but she still managed to take him by surprise. And he knew all the sleazy surgeons had noticed, too. How could they not? As he made his way to her office to start a new mountain of paperwork, he pushed away the thoughts of them leering at her all night.

She almost told the taxi driver to stop at least five times on the way. What was she even going to say? "Sorry about being a bit of a dick tonight, Ollie. But look! I got all pretty for you!" She'd noticed she had this problem with sounding sincere. Or… being sincere. She needed to try, though. If there was one thing Joseph had taught her, it was that she needed to try. She headed straight to her office, smirking as she thought of all the paperwork he'd undoubtedly be starting to tackle.

He'd lost count of how many times he'd glanced at his phone, lying to himself about why. Told himself he was checking the time, or the date or something, doing anything but thinking of calling her to say he'd reacted like a spoilt brat and he was sorry. He was so busy trying to fool himself that he didn't hear the office door opening.

"Come on, Valentine! I didn't wear this dress to be ignored." Her voice was soft, like he could tell she was smiling before he even looked at her.

"I'm sure it's the first time anybody's ignored you all night."

"Very true, but it'd still be polite to look at me, Oliver. Acknowledge the effort. If you wanted to throw a compliment my way, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt anybody…"

"You're stunning, but you know that already." He scolded himself the second the words passed his lips, and quickly felt his face a similar shade to her dress. He raised his eyes to see her grinning at him like the much clichéd Cheshire Cat, and she walked over to the desk.

"Fancy some help with this, Valentine? At this rate you'll never get any done before your next bunch is handed your way." She dragged Elliot's chair over to the desk and sat down opposite him before grabbing a few files and one of her own pens from in front of Oliver.

"I'm sorry."

He quickly recovered from his shock, "You did nothing wrong, I overreacted."

"I should've told you. I just… I sort of wanted you to come anyway, and I didn't think you would if you knew."

"You could've just asked. I would've, I don't know, accompanied you if you'd wanted me too."

"Well I guess I'll know for next time?" They shared a brief, vaguely awkward smile before settling into the comfortable quiet of pens scribbling and paper being turned. Oliver was the one to break it.

"You couldn't have been Mentor of the Year without somebody to mentor."

"Point?"

"Does this make me… Mentee of the Year?"

"Mental of the Year, maybe."

"Jac?"

"Yes?"

"Happy Valentine's Day." She looked up to find him beaming at her, hapless and adorable and she couldn't help but smile back. She didn't feel bad anymore.


End file.
